I am a member of the research faculty at UC San Diego working in the
Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences.
My research interests cover a wide breadth. Most recently I have
utilized ultra-precise astrometry afforded by very long baseline
radio interferometry to measure the most accurate and precise distance
ever to the Pleaides cluster, thus resolving decades of controversy
and cementing our understanding of the physics of young stars.
By collecting light across the electro-magnetic spectrum, I investigate
how rocky bodies (from small dust grains to Earth-like planets) are
formed, how they change as a planetary system ages, and ultimately how
they are destroyed when their host star dies.
Binary star systems can experience unique evolutionary channels if any
of their stellar constituents are close enough to interact as the stars
enter their death throes. In this way, old stars can be reborn into
characteristics typically only associated with newborn stars. Due to
their peculiar observational signatures for their age, these unusual
stars that I identified serendipitously through my thesis research
have been dubbed 'Phoenix Giants'.